Published on the Web (online gallery)

“A Pen” is an exploration of text as a tool for writing, rather than as the result of writing. It is about the interpenetration of code and language in programmable media to imbue letters and words with behaviors, allowing the poem to emerge from their play. It is about creating tools for the readers to become involved in the process of shaping the poems that arise from these processes. Last but not least, it is a further development in Jim Andrews’ lifelong exploration of the visual characteristics of written language, and the capabilities of computers to both render it and reinvent statuesque letters as dancing signifiers that respond to input from the reader.

(Source: Leonardo Flores)

A hypermedia adaptation of the poem "Piano" by René Lapierre.

This collaborative work is built using Geniwate’s (Australian writer Jenny Weight’s nom d’ordinateur) “concatenation engine” and Stephans’ images and text. This “page space” is a computational upgrade to the cut-up, because in addition to randomly joining lines of verse, it cuts them further and places them in different positions of the page, creating multiple lines and readings of the same text. The gorgeous oversaturated images of urban and natural landscapes serve as a backdrop for an explosion of letters in different font sizes and lines of free verse, all of which serve as links to the next piece of the concatenation. The sound clips are nowhere nearly as pleasant as Brian Eno’s “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More,” which has a line that inspired the title of this poem, and perhaps some of its postcard-like visual design and conceptual language choices, such as the frequent use of “you,” “she,” and references to writing.

(Source: Leonardo Flores, I ♥ E-Poetry)

What happens with an essay when it abandons the set form of book pages, and steps out into the internet's virtual space? Webessay is an invitation into a digital meta-essay: an enormous text-tapestry of quotations, photos, rt and music produced from the two essayists associations and personal library, and arranged into four metaphorical trips: the scientific expedition, the internal journey, the big city holiday, and space tourism. The travelers move past over fifty different stops in all, and are sketched out with the help of many hundreds of airmail-striped envelopes. The program is organized so that the traveler can follow the predetermined routes' tracks, or take a spontaneous trip with the help of self-selected links. You can search in the depths, surf freely away in a labyrinth of hypertexts, or you can choose to be led by the webessay's composition. You're guaranteed to get lost, and find something you weren't expecting.

This ode to the moon is written and visually designed to underscore the cyclical nature of the moon’s stages. Using Quicktime VR on a 245 pixel wide circular strip, the view of this work is like being inside a ring and you rotate (or does it rotate?) to see its entire surface. The lines and stanzas in this poem have been arranged on this surface, spaced and indented in relation to one another to create a primarily horizontal visual progression. On the top and bottom of the strip are the stages of the moon, the way you’d find them on a calendar, signaling the passage of time as one reads this poem. The words also signal the passage of time as the speaker discusses her relation to the moon as an oracular companion in the skies, whose stages of dress and undress, bloatedness and thinness, continue to frustrate “lifetimes” of expectation.

(Source: Leonardo Flores)

From April 1, 2000 to April 1 2001, David Jhave Johnston launched his career as a digital poet with a year of poetry experiments using Flash. Titled “Nomad Lingo,” he published several e-poems every month— producing a treasure trove of works that attest to his raw talent, whimsical style, and the ability to create a lyrical voice through lines that are both sensuous and theoretically engaging.

Some aspects he experiments with is how kinetic language and pacing can evoke different meanings and shape tone. For example, the flame-like words in “Watching Fire” is so much more relaxing than the frantic “Me Critters.” Similarly, the lines in “Ceaseless,” while fast-paced, are readable and put reader’s at ease, while “Flood” overwhelms the reader with its accelerating pace and movement. He also works with minimalist interactivity in “Irreconciliable” and “Tsunami” by making the letters and lines respond to mouseovers to reveal other texts.

(Source: Leonardo Flores)